


Is It Mine?

by somesquence



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Actual Cat Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Alternate Universe, F/M, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Shapeshifting, Technically Marichat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27248758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somesquence/pseuds/somesquence
Summary: Weird supervillains had been attacking the city for the last few months, but as an ordinary citizen the best thing Marinette could do was to continue living her life as a normal high school student. One chance meeting with a peculiar black cat led to a surprise visit from the superhero who had been protecting the city all on his own and, well, maybe leaving her normal life behind wasn’t all that bad.[A story set in AU which starts with Chat Noir trying to recruit Marinette to be his superhero partner after months of fighting alone, also he can shapeshift into a literal cat for some reason.]
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Tikki, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 14
Kudos: 44





	1. Marinette’s Life-Changing Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is meant to be a longer fic but I want to see what people think of this before I start writing the rest because this is technically my first fanfic ever (that I post online) so I'm a bit nervous haha. For now there will be only 3 chapters, each with alternating POVs. Feel free to point out errors and give suggestions!
> 
> Some notes for this AU:
> 
>   1. Kwamis are free to roam around and use their powers even without miraculous holders (but most of them are responsible enough to not do that)
>   2. There's no guardian
>   3. Everyone is about 2 years older
>   4. Adrien doesn't go to public school
> 


“Oh, come on!” she grunted between huffs. All the running began to strain her, although it was truly a miracle that her clumsy self hadn’t tripped over her own feet. “It’s not everyday Gabriel Agreste holds a high school-level design competition! _The_ Gabriel Agreste! High school-level! And the time when he does, this happens!”

Marinette wasn’t a self-centered person, really. That would be Chloé Bourgeois. While Marinette normally wouldn’t be complaining about her personal problem out loud for the world to hear, it was hard not to when she found herself running away from some kind of magical supervillain who threatened to… turn the Parisians into cashiers, or something? She didn’t bother to find out, and frankly didn’t _need_ to find out. Leave it to the superhero to deal with the villains’ odd whims and save the day. As an ordinary citizen, the best thing Marinette could do was to run away and find a place to hide to avoid being turned into… a cashier.

The entire predicament was weird for Marinette, and she was sure that the rest of civilians thought so, too.

So, while Marinette normally wouldn’t be complaining about her personal problem out loud for the world to hear, she was _tired_. She spent all night giving finishing touches to her dress for the competition. Of course, being overeager for the once in a lifetime chance to have her work judged by none other than Gabriel Agreste himself, she already finished her dress weeks prior, but she wanted to make everything as perfect as possible. Thankfully, her excitement helped her to go through the day; there was no way she could nap during class with a pounding chest, no matter how tired she was. However, Marinette was left a cranky mess when she had to run from the supervillain, because only then could she feel the pain in her bones from the lack of sleep. And the lack of sleep itself. Not to mention her worry about the competition, but not the way she thought she would be—would it be postponed? _Cancelled?_

Yelling to no one in particular seemed to be the only natural thing to do to release her frustration. It wasn’t like anybody would care, since everyone was busy running or taking covers to even hear her.

She soon followed suit, ducking under the bushes and crawled into a nearby shop after seeing people through the window motioning her to get inside. As soon as she got in, a gentle voice greeted her, “You should be safe here, dear.” Marinette turned to see a woman around her mother’s age, to which she replied with a quick thank you. “I hope the cat will come to the rescue very soon.”

Oh, right, _the cat_.

If he was known by any other name, Marinette wouldn’t know, but _the cat_ was the only one capable of dealing with the supervillains. Some said that he was a superpowered human, some presumed that he was a magical half-cat-half-human creature, and some even claimed that he was an alien sent to the earth to deal with the evil, but regardless of _what_ the superhero was, the cat ears and tail he donned earned him ‘the cat’ as a nickname. He was never around long enough after battles, nor ever spotted when there were no supervillainy shenanigans going on, and so there was no way to confirm anything to the mysterious superhero. Even Alya, Marinette’s best friend slash an aspiring journalist slash the owner of the infamous conspiracy website relating to the said mysterious being (regardless of Alya’s insistence on the website being “just a little harmless blog. Besides, who wants to actually believe a high-school student?”) was turned down by the black-clad hero when she tried to invite him to an interview session.

He kept the city safe; that was all that mattered.

As the feeling of dread slowly disappeared (well, as dreadful as ‘being turned into a cashier’ could be), Marinette could feel herself relax a bit. Having nothing to do in particular—anguishing over a potentially cancelled competition was a later matter—she started to pay attention to the conversation going on around her. Considering the situation, it was no surprise that it was all about _the cat_ and how he would save the day this time.

Marinette noticed that it was methodical so far. A villain would erupt out of nowhere, seeking revenge on petty little things which, thankfully, wasn’t a huge threat to people’s lives or humanity as a whole (even though one could argue that having a world full of cashiers wouldn’t be that good to humanity). Then came the cat, also out of nowhere, jumping from rooftops to rooftops to catch the villain and defeat them for good. It wasn’t clear how it was even done, either, as usually the fight also happened on rooftops too far for surveillance cameras to capture (apparently the city council was proposing a budget for high-end drones just to solve this problem). Shortly after, any damage directly or indirectly caused by the villain would be magically restored to its previous state, although there were several cases where the magic got a bit excessive and suddenly there were more trees than before. As nice as it might sound, it was more of an inconvenience because the trees could grow in the middle of the road. Not just extra trees; some people even ended up having _an extra car_. And that wasn’t even the most extreme case! There was something about the Bastille being restored…

In those cases, the cat took care of it by destroying said objects through some means (undoubtedly magic), but nothing changed the fact that it _happened_ —her history teacher just didn’t stop talking about the fortress that shouldn’t exist anymore for a whole week.

Soon, the buzz in the shop quieted down as the conversation died. Some people started to turn their attention to their own phones, but Marinette couldn’t bring herself to do the same. After all, she didn’t want to be greeted with an email saying that the design competition had been cancelled, at least not this soon. Deciding that she wanted to find some peace in the time being, she resorted to looking out of the window. Maybe she could find some billboard with Adrien’s face to stare at while she waited for the time to pass—or for the cat to deal with the villain, to be precise.

There was a billboard nearby—with a perfume ad Marinette had seen a million times already—and she tried her best to get lost in those mesmerizing green eyes and sweet smile, she really did, but the fact that Adrien Agreste was Gabriel Agreste’s son only brought her mind back to the competition. Needless to say, Marinette did not find peace.

In the end, she gave in and pulled out her phone. Her parents had the right to know that she was safe, after all. Thankfully (or not), there was no new email yet in her inbox. After sending a message to her parents and almost attempting to send Alya a message before realizing that she probably wouldn’t read it anyway, she pulled out her stylus and started mindlessly doodling things with her phone. Usually she would be sketching designs, but it just didn’t feel right.

After what seemed like forever (and two pages of doodles later), a bright light washed over the city, signaling the end of the battle. If Marinette could pick a favorite part of the battle, this would be it. She could almost feel the magic tingling all over her body, and seeing the city being magically restored was a breathtaking sight. It was like a miracle.

It was also a miracle that the competition ended up being postponed for a week. She was in no shape to face Gabriel Agreste after all she went through to avoid being turned into a cashier.

“I’m _tired_ , Alya,” she groaned into her phone. With the threat gone, people began to return to the streets, and so did Marinette. Alya called her as soon as she was done with her business, gushing about the scoop she got about the superhero (exactly the reason why she never replied to Marinette's message during a battle), and after she was done with that, it was Marinette’s turn to complain about her predicament. “Can you imagine having to run that far?”

“Girl, I probably ran as much as you did, but I got sleep last night so no, I can't,” said Alya. “At least now you can get your beauty sleep.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna do right after I got back to my room,” she stifled a yawn. “I’ll visit your blog later to see what that was all about. Why a cashier?”

“Apparently she was a cashier, and her manager yelled at her for some stuff. You know the rest,” Alya said without missing a beat. “Now you better get that sleep, Marinette. Where are you, anyway?”

“Not far from the school. I can see my house already,” she said, and _thank god_ because her body was practically screaming in pain. “I’m gonna hang up, Aly—AAAAAAAAHH!”

Marinette thought she heard Alya saying something but she shoved her phone into her pocket before she could catch the rest. That cat was about to cross the street! And while there were no cars passing (it took a little while for activities to actually resume after an attack, after all), the pedestrian light was red. She quickly pulled the cat back to the sidewalk, lifting it to her eye level to face it straight on. “I know that the road is empty but do you see that, kitty? The light is red, which means you cannot cross. Though… I suppose cats don’t understand this kind of stuff.”

The cat’s green eyes, bright against the black fur, bore into hers. It mewled, as if understanding that it was being scolded. On a closer inspection, she noticed that the cat has a collar, black embroidered with bright green like its eyes, and a black tag with green paw print on it. It looked like the cat was not a stray; no wonder it didn’t understand how to cross the street.

Suddenly Marinette saw people crossing the street in her peripheral vision. It was only then she noticed that the light had turned green, and she was the only one left standing stupefied on that side of the road. Swallowing her embarrassment since apparently people saw her trying to scold a cat, she quickly crossed the road before the light turned red again. “Go. Return to your owner and be a good kitty, now,” she whispered one last time to the cat before putting it down on the ground.

Marinette was watching the cat run away when her phone buzzed in her pocket. “Marinette, what happened?!” Alya’s worried voice flooded into her ear as soon as she picked it up.

“I’m—I’m sorry, Alya! It’s alright! Everything’s alright!” She felt a pang of guilt from making Alya worry about nothing. “It was… This is gonna sound stupid, but there was a cat and it almost ran into the road so I, uh, saved it! And scolded it too—oh my god, Alya, people saw me talking to a cat! They will think I am a total weirdo won’t they? Agh, this is a disaster!”

“Whoa, calm down, Marinette,” Alya sounded quite taken aback. “While I’m glad that you're alright, don't you think you're worried over nothing there?”

“And I should just let it cross the street and get hit by a car that appeared out of nowhere?!”

“No, I’m not talking about that! I mean, surely people won’t care that you’re talking to a cat?” Alya sighed. “Or you know what? I’ll hang up, so you can get home quickly and have that beauty sleep.”

“Oh, right.” As the word ‘sleep’ was mentioned, Marinette was once again brought back to reality; the reality that she was tired and in a very dire need of sleep. “Right, sorry for snapping at you, Alya. I guess I’m just tired. Thanks for checking on me, by the way.”

“No biggie, that’s what friends are for! Now get some sleep!”

“Sure will,” Marinette giggled before ending the call. “I really should head straight home and crash onto my bed…”

***

It was a little past seven when Marinette woke up. She stretched, making her bones pop audibly, and started to take in her surroundings. She felt that her mood was considerably better than in the afternoon, now that she got enough sleep to function for the rest of the day. Not that there was much left to do for the rest of the day: having dinner, doing homework, and maybe checking Alya’s conspiracy website if there was still enough time.

She did exactly that—or at least, that was what she had in mind when she climbed down her bed. After having dinner with her parents (and the topic was, of course, the supervillain who was intent on turning people into cashiers, to which her dad commented with, “What would happen if it hit any one of us? We’re technically already cashiers after all, we take turn to tend the cash register of our bakery,” and only then Marinette thought that maybe it _didn’t_ matter if she got hit, and she was running for nothing) Marinette walked back into her room to see a cat sitting right in the middle of her rug. It was the cat from before; there was no mistaking that collar, that tag, and those bright green eyes.

“Alright, I know I saved you before, but I don’t remember ever taking you…” she trailed off as her eyes wandered to the opened hatch leading to her balcony. “I don’t remember leaving that open either, but, okay, maybe I was just too tired and don’t remember opening it,” she said to no one in particular. “How did you find me, anyway?”

The cat meowed and leaped onto her chaise, snuggling against a peculiar wooden box. Huh, she wondered what that was. She didn’t remember ever seeing that kind of box—it was the size of a jewelry box, octagonal with red engravings on it—anywhere in the house. Was it a gift left for her, from her parents perhaps? She would have assumed that it was from the cat if it wasn’t for the fact that it was more unlikely. There was no way a cat could bring a box and place it neatly on her chaise, and didn’t cats usually bring dead birds or mice for a gift?

Curiosity got the better of her, and Marinette picked up the box. After sniffing it (just to make sure that it wasn’t packed with dead birds and mice, in case it was really from the cat), she opened it to find a pair of black earrings. Her face was filled with delight seeing the shiny new jewelry in her possession. Just a week ago, she told her mom about wanting to get extra allowance to buy new earrings since her current one was getting a bit too out-of-trend (Chloé just couldn’t stop humiliating her for it, but Marinette was very well aware that it _was_ out-of-trend, Chloé or not), and in turn she would help out in the bakery more often. Her mom gave a not-very-straightforward answer of “let’s see,” but Marinette started spending more time in the bakery, nonetheless. Maybe her mom just wanted to surprise her?

It was a pair of stud earrings, adorned with polished black stone that glimmered under the light of her room. It was simple, yet beautiful. It was _perfect_.

Her moment of amazement was disrupted by a swirling red _something_ that zoomed into her face. Marinette, too awestruck to be functioning normally, could only jump back as quick as she could. She fell to the floor—she assumed? She wasn’t really sure, but she felt that she fell—and saw a flying… bug? No, it was too big to be a bug—mouse? Bugmouse? _Some creature_ , red in color with a big black spot on its forehead, staring at her with its big blue eyes.

“Please don’t panic,” it spoke—it could speak?! “My name is Tikki, and I—”

Apparently, Marinette flung a pillow from her chaise to the red creature. She wasn’t exactly aware of her actions, but she needed to get rid of that _thing_ , all while trying not to verbally freak out. When her pillow seemed to go _through_ the thing, however, she scurried to take the pillow back and stuffed it on her face instead, muffling her screams with it. She was contemplating on planting her face on the pillow forever to avoid seeing the red creature when she heard a call from downstairs. “Marinette! Is everything alright up there?”

“I-i-it’s alright!” she forced the word out from her mouth, glancing away from the direction of her chaise where the creature floated around. “I just tripped and fell. You know how clumsy I am, hahaha!”

“Alright, be careful next time, honey!”

“I-I will!”

Thankfully, her mom didn’t push further. But since the conversation was over, she had no choice but to face the thing again. Marinette could still feel her heart thumping erratically, but she could manage it. Hopefully.

Marinette slowly—very slowly—turned her head back to her chaise, half hoping that it was just her imagination and she would see nothing but the chaise, but that was quickly proven to be a futile wish because it clearly was still there, eyeing her with an apologetic expression. “Have you calmed down?” it asked with its tiny, high-pitched voice.

“I’m… not exactly _calmed down_ , but I can manage,” Marinette said, giving it a nervous smile. “Sorry, what was it that you tried to tell me?”

“Oh!” It twirled in the air before flying towards Marinette, who instinctively inched away. “My name is Tikki. I am…” Its chatter trailed away, glancing behind Marinette as if looking for something. Marinette decided not to mind and gestured it to continue on. “Well, we can get into the details later on. Now let me ask you something: are you up to become a superhero?”

“What?!” Marinette’s eyes bulged. “I mean, that was a very flattering offer, but why? Isn’t there already a superhero out there?”

“Exactly,” Tikki nodded. “But, you see, we’re having a little difficulty with how it is right now, so it would be nice if he gets himself a partner. That’s why I am here, to ask you if you want to be his partner in fighting crime!”

“By ‘he’ you mean… the cat guy?”

“Yup!”

Marinette was effectively rendered speechless. She backtracked the events that led to her current situation, trying to make sense of it—of _any_ of it. She started the day with no sleep, nervousness building up in her nerves as Gabriel Agreste’s high school-level design competition came nearer. School went as usual and she was heading home to pick up the Marinette-designed dress for the competition when a supervillain showed up from the direction of her house. She ran away to avoid getting hit by the villain’s laser beam and turned into a cashier, not without complaining about how it ruined her day, before hiding in some random shop and tried to pass the time by ~~staring at Adrien’s picture~~ doodling some stuff. After the coast was clear, she headed home, for real this time, and stumbled onto a cat trying to cross the street while the light was red. Trying to prevent the cat from walking to its death, she pulled it, scolded it, got stared at by passersby, and felt humiliated. She finally got home and welcomed that beauty sleep, woke up thinking that the rest of the day would go well, and now she had floating red… _Tikki_ , whatever it was, trying to recruit her as a superhero.

No, actually, everything stopped making any sense ever since those supervillains started showing up. She shouldn’t even try to make a sense of it.

Marinette tried a more rational approach to the situation. Her? A superhero? While _rationally_ she shouldn’t be opposed to the idea, it was… fishy, to say the least. After all, she suddenly had a creature sent to her and offered a job as a superhero! Not to mention that she already had a lot on her plate: schoolworks, helping out at the bakery, designing, and should she take her clumsiness into consideration? Nevertheless, it would be wise to decline.

“I’m not even a superhuman with superstrength, how could I become a super _hero_?” she asked.

Tikki’s enthusiastic response was not what Marinette was expecting. “Well, that’s what I am here for! I can lend you my power to defeat those supervillains!”

That didn’t work. She needed another excuse. “But even if you lend your power to me, don’t I need to, you know, know how to use it? The tricks, techniques, things like that—I’m not familiar with superhero-related things, after all.”

She had yet again provoked the opposite reaction she hoped Tikki would give her. “Practice makes perfect! I’ll teach you the ropes, and you’ll be swinging across the city before you know it!” Tikki started to gesture animatedly. “And of course, it’s not just me, but he’ll be training you as well. With the two of us, there’s nothing to worry about!”

“Yup, you heard her,” a voice chimed from behind her.

Marinette had never turned her head as fast as she did just now and she regretted it instantly because she wasn’t prepared for the surprise waiting for her. Standing right behind her, arms folded across his chest, was none other than _the cat_.

“Hi there,” he smiled at her.

Marinette screamed.


	2. His Life

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he shouted amidst the chaos, carefully vaulting over people and buildings as he zipped across the city. Being high up in the air gave him a better view of the city, or rather, the oddities of it. Lockers in the middle of the road, buildings stacked on top of buildings, a bulk of pillow piling on the sidewalks, and those were just the obvious ones he cataclysmed on sight. It was harder to spot unnatural but otherwise harmless plants that grew on actual soil, extra benches in the park, or high-end phones people quickly claimed as theirs as soon as it materialized out of thin air. Thankfully, Tikki could tell her accidental creation apart from her intentional restoration.

“That bus over there,” Tikki said. He nodded and followed the direction she was pointing at, finding a bus on the road, looking nothing out of ordinary. With a soft thud expected of a cat, he landed on the bus and took a moment to examine it—just making sure that it was empty—before erasing it out of existence with a touch of his hand. Since he couldn’t tell apart Tikki’s magic unlike Tikki herself, he relied on her guidance to determine her accidental creations, then he would take care of those oddities by destroying it, naturally.

Sometimes he liked to watch objects disintegrate slowly before disappearing completely, but he just didn’t feel like doing it this time. That last akumatized villain took a lot of chasing around to deal with, and… that was it, actually. She was quick, she shot laser beams, but her entire motivation was to turn Parisians into cashiers for a reason he didn’t bother to find out (but since the villain just couldn’t stop narrating her life as a cashier, how much she hated her manager for yelling at her for something that wasn’t her mistake, and now she wanted to put the manager in her shoes, all while running around the city spewing laser beams, he knew anyway) so it wasn’t a huge threat all in all, but having to run after her all around the city really took toll on his patience.

“Tikki, I know that the Akuma’s doings have to be fixed no matter what, but what is so wrong with having a city full of cashiers anyway?” he wondered out loud as he vaulted himself back into the air, catching the sight of a lamp post impaling the Louvre almost immediately. He flicked a Cataclysm beam at it and carried on without another glance. “At least no one will be unemployed that way.”

“Well, yes, but you have to look at the bigger picture,” Tikki said. “If everyone is stuck behind cash registers, who will do the rest? I don’t think there will be cheesemakers anymore that way.”

“Oh no, not the cheesemakers. How do I live without cheese?!” he feigned a horrified expression before looking at Tikki and gave her a heartful laugh. “Silly me, that should be obvious.”

Before Tikki could say something in return, a voice called out from below. “Hey, cat! Wanna lend a hand?”

As Tikki quickly zipped into his pocket to hide herself out of sight, he glanced around and saw a man, probably in his forties, waving his hand at him from underneath a sign of a nearby café. He let his pole-length staff retract into the length of a baton, bringing him down with it. He flopped right beside the man and gave him a toothy grin. “Of course, sir, if it’s something these paws can solve!”

The man pointed at the black awning shadowing the outdoor seating of the café. “This thing, it came with that bright light after the attack just now.”

He took a very quick glance at Tikki, careful not to be noticed by the man, and got an affirmation from the red creature. He examined the awning again, finding it hard to believe that it was magically summoned out of nowhere just less than an hour ago. It looked like it had been there for at least a year with how the color faded on the places where the sun fell, and its shape, straight with a rounded nose, matched the café’s aesthetics so well. He wondered how Tikki did all these, but then again, it _was_ magic.

“So you need me to remove it, then,” he nodded, not removing his eyes from the awning.

“Oh, so you’re not letting me keep it, after all,” the man cackled.

He shook his head dramatically, an exasperated sigh escaping his mouth. “Unfortunately, no, sir. I beg your _paw_ don for causing such disappointment. You see, this cat here is trying his best to save Paris, but sometimes mistakes happen and he needs to take responsibility for it.”

The man suddenly patted him on the back while laughing loudly. “Worry not, kid, I was just kidding! This is more than enough help for me already.” When he received a raised eyebrow from the much younger man, he elaborated, “I’ve always wanted to put some shades over here, but I don't know what looks good since there are so many shapes and colors out there. One of my workers even suggested trees, but there isn’t that much space here for a tree, don’t you think? And this, this is the perfect match for my little café!”

He was quite taken aback hearing the man's story; he just didn't expect to accidentally inspire someone by defeating a supervillain—no, by taking care of the mess caused by supervillain activities. “Well, I’m glad to be a help! But if you ask me, the black might be too dark for a café like this. _Purr_ haps you can get green instead so it won’t be as gloomy, and it’ll go well with the trees just like your worker’s idea.”

The man nodded. “Nice idea you got there, boy! I thought you’d be more into black, but the green will be great, I’ll probably go with that instead.”

“Oh? Is it because of my suit? While I do like the black, us cats don’t get to choose our color,” he grinned. “Well, either way, I’m happy that you find my advice useful. Now, can I…?”

“I’m hoping that you’ll allow me to take some pictures first, and while I’m on that, you can grab some snacks inside. That’s the least I can give you in return for this. And for keeping Paris safe, of course.”

He didn’t think twice to accept the offer and headed straight into the café proper. After returning with a cup of café au lait (with much, _much_ extra milk) and bag of pastries, he checked back to the man to finally receive the green light to destroy the awning (which he did while somehow holding both the coffee and the pastry with his other hand), and after that was taken care of, he bid the man goodbye and vaulted back into the sky.

He waved the bag of pastries to his tiny companion as soon as he was out of sight. “All yours, Tikki, for helping the man with his awning!” he beamed at her. “Who knows that you have such a talent? It’s just too bad that humans are not allowed to see you, so they can’t give you a proper appreciation. I can’t even come up with something like that, let alone accidentally.”

Tikki flew to his side, opting to occupy his shoulder rather than having to fly up and dive down following his unpredictable jumping. “Thank you, but you’re giving me too much credit. I suppose it’s not exactly a talent; maybe a familiarity? I’ve seen a lot of awnings throughout my life, so I might have unconsciously made up something that naturally looks good,” she said. “Isn’t that nice that the man actually called and asked you to destroy the awning, even though he actually wanted it?”

He nodded. “Yeah, we’re so lucky to meet him. It’s not everyday people are willing to do that…” he grimaced as a recent memory resurfaced, a small laugh coming from Tikki told him that she knew exactly what he was thinking about. It wasn’t that long ago when he had to confront a group of teenagers with shiny new phones… courtesy of Tikki’s magic, which they were fully aware of, but didn’t want to admit. He had to involve himself in a heated argument, causing unnecessary commotion that attracted too many people for his comfort, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, those kids were trying to frame him as a mugger! Thankfully none of the passersby really bought it, though in the end he had no choice but to pull the ‘I’ll Tell Your Parents’ card. While deep inside of him there was an urge to just go wild and settle it with a catfight, he understood that being a superhero— _the_ superhero—came with the obligation to act responsibly, despite being thrown into the role rather unceremoniously. Well, it wasn’t like he had much choice, or _any_ other choice for that matter.

Landing on a rooftop towering over the other rooftops in the neighborhoods, he put away his staff and seated himself on the concrete. “Alright, let’s just watch from here while we chill for a bit. Is there still a lot of work to do?”

“I don’t think so. I focused my magic on restoring back the cashiers so I suppose there shouldn’t be that many accidental creations. The villain didn’t do much physical damage, after all,” Tikki said while peeking inside of the pastry bag. “Are you sure you’re giving me all these? You had a hand in helping the man too, so you should take some.”

“ _Paw_ sitive. Besides, I already got my share of treat,” he said, lifting his cup to make his point.

“But you still need to run around to fix my mess. At least take one so your stomach won’t be empty,” she nudged the pastry bag to him with her tiny paws.

Seeing Tikki’s small stature against the paper bag at least thrice her size was a really adorable sight, even though he was aware of the potent power she held within her. Sure he was glad to have her around; all the care and thought she showered him with would always make him feel warm inside. “Alright, if you said so. Got anything with cheese?”

She gave him a quizzical look. “Oh, you didn’t pick the pastries yourself? You got all my favorites here so I thought you did.”

“No, that’s just your luck, Tikki,” he chuckled, managing to take exactly one sip of his coffee before getting distracted by something within his peripheral vision. It was yet another nothing-out-of-ordinary sight of a billboard depicting an ad, but for some reason people were flocking below the billboard. He quickly grabbed Tikki’s attention by nudging her with the back of his finger, careful not to hurt her with his claw. “There seems to be something happening down there,” he told her.

Tikki caught on quickly without needing further elaboration. “Oh, right, that one is mine,” she said.

He squinted, trying to get a better look at the billboard—cats didn’t have the best long distance vision, after all. The large board of ad might be Tikki’s creation, but the blond guy and the perfume bottle in the ad sure looked familiar; he certainly had seen that exact image on non-magical, human-erected billboards. “But that’s an actual ad, right? I swear I’ve seen that guy a million times already.”

She nodded, agreeing with him. “Maybe that’s the reason why the billboard looks that way.”

“Unfortunately, our job here is not to give free advertisements. Come on, Tikki, you can hide inside of the bag and continue eating while I take care of that billboard before those people start rioting.”

After another short exchange with the red creature about his share of pastry (“Don’t worry, Tikki, I’ll certainly have one after this,”) he pulled out his staff and took one large leap, arriving at the scene in no time. Still with a coffee cup in his hand, he approached the crowd, drawing attention as soon as he made his arrival known. One woman in particular, clad in a bright orange vest and white construction helmet, was visibly elated at his presence. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she breathed a sigh of relief. “We just don’t know how to take this thing down ‘right in this very second’ but this lady over here—”

Said lady, dressed in a black fancy outfit that stood out amidst the horde of orange vests of the workers, was clearly offended by the accusation, “Well, excuse me, but I didn’t buy a strategically placed store just to have it suddenly blocked completely out of sight by a billboard!”

The construction worker barely even flinched, as she only said a nonchalant “you heard her” in response. Something about that told him that the commotion had been going for a little while now.

Adjusting the length of his staff for him to use as a leaning stick, he took a moment to take in the sight before having a say on the situation. “I understand your reasoning, but are you sure that you want to take this down? I mean, look at the guy—I’m sure the _radiant, carefree, dreamy Adrien_ can attract a lot of customers just fine,” he said, reading off the tagline on the ad. However, he quickly took back his joke when the woman in black glowered at him, compelling him to straighten his posture and apologize. “I’m sorry, ma’am, that was just a joke. After all, I have to destroy that billboard whether you like it or not.”

“Well, that’s good news to me,” the woman scoffed. “So, what are you waiting for? You’re already taking too long to arrive, now don't go waste any more of my time, cat.”

He raised his coffee cup for her to see. “My apologies for arriving late. Superhero duty comes with the need of energy recharge,” he said. “But worry not, ma’am, I’ll make sure to clean up all the _claw_ tters I left behind. I’m a responsible cat, you see.” To prove his point, he summoned a small sphere of energy on his palm and flicked it towards the support pole of the billboard. The destructive magic spread fast like a plague, decaying the entire billboard before it disintegrated into dust and disappeared into thin air.

“Whoa, that was—I don’t know, I’m speechless,” came a man’s voice, who he noticed was one of the construction workers, now holding his phone with the camera pointed to the was-billboard. “I’ve seen this on the news, but it’s just different than seeing it with my own eyes. How did you do that? Don’t you think it’ll be practical if we can take down things that way?”

“Yeah, and lose our job as well because why are we even needed if billboards can just disappear like that?” the female worker joined back into the conversation. “Thanks for the help, cat. Next time a magical structure appears, we should just wait for you to come,” she said, narrowing her eyes at the store owner.

“Yeah, yeah,” the woman in black rolled her eyes. “It would help if there was a number I can contact.”

“Oh, right, is there? That would be a great help for us too,” the worker chimed, “so we don’t get calls for things, you know, beyond our expertise.”

Placing a hand over his mouth, he thought for a moment. “I don’t, but that’s actually a good idea. Maybe I can think of something,” he nodded to himself. “Well, hopefully this is good enough for now, I still need to go on a run. You know, gotta destroy some more stuff like the cat I am.”

“Aw, not gonna stay a little bit for some chit-chats? I’m genuinely curious about that magic of yours!” said the man.

“Isn’t there a saying out there about curiosity and cats? Besides, this cat would like to remain a mystery. Where’s the fun when everything is out in the open?” he tugged a smirk across his face. “Alright, I’m taking my leave now. Sorry for the trouble I caused, and take care!”

Tikki phased through the pastry bag the moment he was airborne, “You know, you don’t need to apologize about it. It was accidental, and if anything, it was my fault—”

“What do you think about the number thing, Tikki?” he interjected, very clearly attempting to change the topic. At the same time, he cut his travel short and landed on a nearby rooftop, setting down the pastry bag first thing and taking a sip of his coffee second. “I mean, think about it, that woman really does have a point. If we get a number… We know that my baton can be used as a phone, but is it possible to register a number to it?”

Tikki’s voice sounded uncharacteristically hesitant the moment she spoke, “Actually, I’m thinking about something else; something that has nothing to do with numbers.”

He glanced down at her, reading her expression closely before deciding that he knew where the conversation was headed. “Of course,” he said. “We gotta find someone sooner or later, huh?”

***

He had been standing at the forefront of the battlefield, fighting evil to protect Paris from the wrath of supervillains for as long as he could remember.

Which, technically speaking, hadn’t been that long. Three months had passed since the first supervillain made his appearance in the city—or, had it really been three months? It was hard to keep track of time when one day blurred into another with no schedule to follow, no one to remind, yet no time to ponder on his own. One thing that he noticed was that the season had barely changed; it would rain once in a while, but otherwise the weather was always nice enough for him to stretch and pop his bones while bathing in the sunlight.

Long story short, an adversary called Hawk Moth presented himself to be the mastermind behind the supervillain attacks in Paris, and that was about the first and the last time he had seen that man. No one else was around during that introductory appearance, not even cameras, manned or not, accidental or not, had captured that meeting. It was a moment undisclosed to the public eye that he alone—and Tikki, but she was hiding in one of his pocket so Hawk Moth shouldn’t have seen her—present to witness, so as far as he was aware, the only thing that citizens could make of the current circumstances was ‘evil purple butterflies were going around and turning people into supervillains,’ which wasn’t wrong in the slightest because that was _exactly_ how Hawk Moth operated his evil scheme without ever physically showing himself.

Of course the police initially tried to take control of the evil butterfly situation. When that didn’t quite work (the police weren’t exactly trained to _fly_ after all), the armed forces were dispatched. When even _that_ didn’t work as well (because it caused unnecessary distress within the country; the armed forces weren’t needed to meddle in a parent and child-turned-supervillain dispute caused by a birthday party), naturally the job fell to him, a fellow Miraculous holder who could match Hawk Moth’s power no less and no more.

To be frank, his journey to superheroics was only viable because Tikki was with him. He could compete with the supervillains’ inhuman acrobatics and nonsensical superpowers, yes, but there was no way his destructive power could finish what Hawk Moth started. With Tikki around, she could use her power of creation to cure the akumatized villains and fix the subsequent damage of the attack, but there was a catch: it came with a little repercussion since Tikki was unable to control her power. Having trees on pavements and roads was actually an everyday occurrence, finding boxed pastries littering public places was a rarer phenomenon but had happened several times nonetheless, seeing the public went wild when the Bastille was restored and _even wilder_ when the fortress disappeared with a _poof_ within half an hour was an experience he was sure wouldn’t happen again for a long while, or at all.

Simply put, Tikki’s uncontrollable power caused things that shouldn’t exist to exist, though it wasn’t an issue for him. He could use his Cataclysm to remove those bizarreness and return things to how it was, then the day was saved once again. But Tikki’s growing worry was starting to eat him up as well—Tikki was a wonderful friend, he didn’t like seeing her blaming herself for something she had no control of, or getting worried about his well-being when he had to exert himself to run all over Paris even after the villain was defeated. No matter how often he tried to convince her that, “Hey, it’s no big deal, Tikki! We’re in this together,” he could still see the unease in her eyes, even when she tried to hide it with a bubbly laugh.

The solution was obvious: find someone to pass the Ladybug Miraculous to. With a proper holder, none of it—the accidental creation, the destruction afterwards, the public reaction regarding the ineffective method of villain-dealing—would need to happen. Ladybug had been a topic of discussion between the two of them for a little while now, but they had no means to recruit the right person for the job since he tended to steer clear of people in general; it would be too suspicious if the mysterious superhero suddenly went up and offered a Miraculous to a civilian. _Any_ civilian.

But then he found himself—currently a cat—lifted up in someone’s arms, staring deep into her blue-tinted irises as she scolded him about crossing the street when the light was red, which he apparently was about to do from being too deep in his thoughts and losing track of his surroundings. Even when the light turned green, she stood still, giving him a moment to look deeper into those eyes and got lost in its warmth and kindness… at least until she snapped back into reality and hurried to get to the other side; he could only wonder what was in her mind.

What was in his mind was, of course, his savior. There was no ignoring the butterflies in his stomach. After she gently warned him for one last time, she put him down and let him wander on his own, but he still could feel the warmth all over him even with her touch gone. He wanted to ask her to stay a little bit longer, or maybe he could even treat her to some coffee as a token of gratitude! But the fact that he had to tilt his head upward to even see her reminded him of his current feline situation, which then prompted him to make a mad dash to some alley to transform back into human. Well, superpowered human, perhaps, but human nonetheless.

Tikki floated up and shrieked at him right in the face immediately after she caught up. “Hold on! What are you planning to do?”

“Tikki!” He almost couldn’t believe his own voice, trilling high and full of affection, fondness, endearment, _love_. “Do you believe in love at the first sight?”

Her flabbergasted look spoke a thousand words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The accidental creation thing is basically my interpretation of 'what if Tikki uses her power without a Ladybug?' since we never saw it in the show.
> 
> One chapter left and guess whose POV it will be?


	3. Tikki’s New Ladybug

“Marinette, what’s going on up there?!”

The girl, presumably called Marinette, let out a small yelp as she clamped her mouth shut with her hands, her widened eyes darting between Tikki and Chat Noir. Unbelievably enough, her eyes got even wider when a soft thump could be heard underneath the trapdoor on the ground. Quickly catching on to what was happening, she began to wave her hand, motioning Chat Noir and Tikki to hide somewhere while also mouthing the word voicelessly, but her frantic movement made her look like she was just flailing her hands around.

Precisely a second after Tikki hid herself behind a mannequin—and out of the corner of her eyes she could see the very human Chat Noir trying to blend in with the shadow by ducking under the desk, which would work extremely well if not for his blond hair—the hatch opened, revealing a petite woman in white with her eyes narrowing worriedly. “Marinette,” she began, her voice soft despite the sternness of her tone, “why are you—”

“There was a spider!” Marinette answered a bit too quickly. “It… It just got away to the balcony,” she pointed a finger to the open hatch above her bed, “but w-well, it startled me so I screamed! I’m… really sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Oh, Marinette,” the woman, presumably her mother, cooed as she gave a small smile. “It’s alright to be scared, but maybe next time you can lower down your voice? We don’t want to bother the neighbors, now. And make sure to close the hatch so you won't be inviting any other weird bugs into your room.”

Marinette laughed sheepishly. “Yes, I’m sorry, Mom. I’ll try to… be less scared next time.”

“That’s my girl,” she gave Marinette a kiss on the forehead. “Now get your homework done and go to sleep. I know you just had a nap, but you must be tired from the cashier villain earlier.”

Tikki slowly floated out from her hiding place as Marinette’s mother disappeared back through the trapdoor, hovering close to the girl to hear her sigh in relief. “Whew, that was close.”

“Should I close that hatch for you? Can’t afford to have more bugs in the room when these two bugs are bugging you enough, though I gotta say that I prefer being called a cat,” Chat Noir said from his hiding place, his green eyes shone bright against the dark. “She's not entirely wrong—we _did_ get in through that hatch—but why the lie?”

Marinette had jumped a little upon hearing his voice, seeming to have momentarily forgotten about the reason for her freak out. “It’s easier to explain that way,” she admitted. “I don’t need my parents freaking out because they saw the superhero here in my room for some reason.”

“But _you_ freaked out,” he pointed out.

“That’s because you snuck up on me! Anybody would freak out, superhero or not!” Marinette hissed at him. Then as if realizing something, she suddenly narrowed her eyes and gave Chat Noir a wary look. “Wait a minute, are you the real thing? You’re not… You’re not here to rob me by pretending to be the superhero, right? Oh no, I know I shouldn’t leave my hatch open like that. This is a disaster,” she clapped her hands on her cheeks, eyes widening in panic.

Tikki took that as a cue to make herself visible again within the girl’s field of vision. “Marinette, was it? Don’t worry, we're as real as we can be. We can even do some demonstration of our powers if you’re not convinced enough. But in any case, we’re certainly not here to rob you.”

She could see Marinette slowly lowering her guard down, as if being reminded of Tikki’s presence had managed to erase all doubt that she had. “Um, I’ve seen enough of your superpower thing on the news so, yeah, I think I’m gonna turn that offer down because I don’t need any of my stuff destroyed, or any stuff, mine or not, and especially not—” She suddenly halted, eyebrows knitting together. “Wait, what about the… Where is it? You didn't scare it away, did you? Or did _I_ scare it away?”

“Are you _purr_ haps talking about the cat?” Chat Noir tilted his head to a side as he questioned her; he was still nestled underneath the desk for no apparent reason but comfort. “That was me.”

“That was _you_? You’re an actual cat?!”

Tikki could see him flinching at the mention of his shapeshifting thing. “It’s a little bit complicated, but technically yes?” he said, sounding unsure himself. “But well, this isn’t about me. Tikki, maybe you can continue where we left off?”

It was just so Chat Noir to avoid the talk concerning himself, but he got a point this time. Tikki knew that this moment, to finally have someone who might be willing to be the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous, wouldn’t come so easily. It even felt like a miracle that Chat Noir had made up his mind to look for a candidate, although his method had been a little bit… unorthodox, judging from the fact they were currently in a bedroom belonging to an unsuspecting girl. Nevertheless, she could see that Marinette was a genuinely kind girl, and perhaps she could really be the one?

Tikki couldn’t contain the excitement in her tiny body, twirling upwards and immediately dropping herself right in front of the girl's face as she asked, “Yes! So what do you think about the offer, Marinette?”

“Actually I was going to decline,” Marinette said without missing a beat.

Tikki was surprised, yes, but Chat Noir beat her to it. “W-what? Why?!” he asked, scampering out from his hiding place at last, taking a spot on the carpet as he leaned too close to Marinette’s face for her comfort, looking completely hurt just like a kicked puppy… a kitten would be more fitting, perhaps. “At least tell me why?” he asked, his voice sounding timid and Tikki honestly couldn’t tell if it was real or he was just being dramatic.

“M-maybe I will reconsider it if _you_ tell me why!” Marinette squeaked, using her hand to push his face away from hers. After watching him take a seat on the carpet in a more reasonable distance, she placed her hands on her laps, eyeing the magical earrings forgotten on the floor. “I mean, why me?” she asked slowly.

“You saved me,” he told her like it was the most obvious answer to the question. “I could’ve been turned into a ran-down pancake on the concrete if you didn’t pull me away from the street.”

Marinette didn’t take her eyes off the pair of earrings, but her eyes widened a bit. “There weren’t any cars around, but… well, yes, that was what I was afraid of,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting that cat to be some kind of magical, shapeshifting cat who was also a part-time superhero, though.”

“Exactly,” Tikki joined in. “I get the feeling that you’re more than willing to help people around you in your everyday life from the fact that you did that without a second thought. You didn’t expect anything in return for your act of kindness, that proves the sincerity you hold within your heart. I believe that you are worthy enough to have these jewels entrusted to you, Marinette.”

Her eyes softened the moment Tikki said that, but a moment passed and the frown on the girl’s face deepened. “I’m happy to hear that, but don’t you think it takes more than a heart to become a superhero? By that logic anyone can be a superhero and not just… _me_.”

“You’re absolutely right about that. It could be _anyone_ ; you’re no exception yourself. Fate happened to bring us here to your room,” or more like Chat Noir’s whim, but it wasn’t something Marinette needed to know. “We understand that you already said no, but that actually says a lot about you. I know for a fact that a lot of people out there fight for power, all for their own personal gain. But you, Marinette, something tells me that you’ll be able to use this power for the greater good.”

“Either way, it’s your choice to make. We’re not trying to pressure you,” Chat Noir nodded before turning to face her fully and grinned ear-to-ear. “But let me tell you something: all it takes is a heart, trust me.”

They kept their eyes locked on each other for a brief moment, until Marinette broke it to glance between him, Tikki, and eventually the Miraculous box. Her brows were furrowed as she appeared to be deep in her thoughts, a resolute look taking over her feature. Then she opened her mouth, “Alright, I’ll take the offer. I mean, I’m still not entirely sure about this, but you won’t know if you don’t try, right?” Marinette paused to let out a small laugh. “Besides, I really appreciate the encouragement. I don’t think I can thank you enough.”

The smile on Chat Noir’s face was contagious, though Tikki was sure that she herself would be smiling even without seeing him. After all, Marinette said yes! “You know that we’re the one who should be thanking you, though?” he said.

“See, I’m madly clumsy. And no, don’t say no; you just haven’t seen it yet. It’s hard for me to imagine doing anything without tripping, stumbling, fumbling… you get the idea,” she began. “But maybe you’re right about that. If there’s a chance for me to work on it, then I’m going to take it. I might not be the best superhero, uh, sidekick, but I’ll do my best.”

“Oh, no, didn't Tikki tell you already? The idea is not to make you my sidekick. We’re going to be partners,” his voice sounded oddly strained, uncharacteristically nervous to Tikki’s ears. “And you don’t need to worry about your clumsiness. Who knows, maybe you will be the best partner I could ever have!”

Marinette made a face as though something just combusted inside of her head. “W-well,” she spluttered, unmistakably trying to keep her voice from wavering despite the very visible blush on her face, “I haven’t even introduced myself! How rude of me, that should be the first thing I told you before we agreed on anything!" She practically shoved her hand towards him. "It’s Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Chat Noir took her extended hand slowly, carefully clasping it in his own gloved hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Marinette.”

Tikki just watched and waited for one specific response that, realistically speaking, would definitely come from the other party in the conversation. She had tried to ask him about this particular topic earlier right before he enacted this whole plan, but he only dismissed the question and carried on. It was one trivial matter that still remained unsolved after three whole months, though he had a pretty valid reasoning for not caring much about this thing called a _name_ because it was, admittedly, of less importance than the actual job of fighting supervillains.

Just as she thought, Marinette finally asked him back after what seemed to be a full minute had passed. "And yours? Aren't you gonna tell me your name in exchange? Come to think about it, I don't think you ever gave your name in public."

"That," he muttered, hand going rigid in her grip. “I don't suppose a stray like me has a name. Or you know the deal with strays, we get different names everywhere we go.”

Eyebrows furrowed, she released his hand from her hold. "Yeah, I get the idea about stray cats, but are you sure about that? I mean, you're not an actual stray cat."

He returned a small smile while shrugging. "It is what it is, I _am_ an actual stray cat, but don't let that bother you. We got a bigger task ahead, now that you have accepted our offer, Marinette. Now grab that miraculous, and off we go to save Paris from peril!"

“Wait, right _now_?” Marinette asked, eyes wide from the unexpected call. “What about my homework?”

Tikki couldn't help but giggle at Marinette's priceless expression of horror while Chat Noir quickly corrected himself. “Sorry about that, I got a little carried away. Of course we’re not going out right _now_ ,” he sheepishly admitted. “We think that you need to understand the situation better and familiarize with Tikki’s powers first before jumping into the battlefield, but that can be done after your homework, of course.”

“But you got a point there,” Tikki said, hovering just above his head. “You should take the Miraculous first, Marinette. The best way of keeping a Miraculous safe is by wearing it because our power will be in better control if the miraculous is worn and the user is transformed.”

She went to take out the pair of earrings from the box, handing it to Marinette who took it into her cupped palms. She proceeded to put it on, though not without question. “Transformed?”

“Let me show you,” Chat Noir whirled around, offering her a hand as he kneeled in front of her. He brought her up on her feet and gripped both of her hands, leather tail flicked up high into the air in excitement. “Say _Tikki, spots on_!”

Marinette gave Tikki a glance at the mention of her name. She might have expressed her resolve just a moment ago, but the uncertainty in her eyes remained. She looked scared, she seemed doubtful, and Tikki understood that well because she too, couldn’t help the agitation bubbling inside her. It was a moment she had been waiting for, but it had been a long while since she was charged with a holder; the nervousness was inevitable. Nevertheless, she nodded in response, flying closer to the girl to give her some assurance.

From across them, she could see Chat Noir smiling in anticipation. She thought of how happy he must be that his impulsive plan of infiltrating the girl's house had miraculously worked, but that wasn't the only emotion he had on display. It was a familiar look, like the one Plagg would have given her while saying, "Good luck, Sugarcube," but she didn't get to think about it for too long as she heard Marinette's voice calling out.

“Tikki, spots on!”

***

“Does he mean what he said? About not having a name?”

With all the distractions interfering with her academic obligations, it was way past midnight when Marinette finally finished her homework. But instead of sleeping, she lied wide awake in her bed, back against the photograph-cluttered wall as she asked Tikki that question. Marinette seemed to notice the change of atmosphere once Chat Noir made his departure and tried to lighten up the mood by engaging her in some small talks. Tikki herself only realized how attached she had grown to him when he bid them adieu and jumped out of the hatch towards the night sky. While she had been looking forward to having a proper holder, it didn't cross her mind that she would finally see him saying goodbye to her, even if it wasn’t for too long.

The discussion about sweets had thankfully taken her mind off of it. Living just above a well-known patisserie and in fact being the daughter of the patissier themselves, Marinette knew a lot about sweets, and the conversation just went naturally from there. After the initial shock from knowing that Tikki did in fact _eat_ and recharged her energy through normal food (as dubbed by the girl), Marinette showed her a special macaron she only baked once a week and let her have it. The girl found it surprising that Tikki had never tasted the Tom & Sabine pastries before, though, and made sure that Tikki would have a taste of every single kind of sweets that they offered in the bakery!

While Tikki was still not entirely sure about just what went on in Chat Noir’s head when he made the unexpected decision to offer the Ladybug Miraculous to a girl he just met for less than a minute (aside from the ‘love at first sight’ part, which she did _not_ understand either), nor she condoned his methods in doing so (he exploited his shapeshifting ability to follow her as an unsuspecting feline, watched her as she literally crashed onto her bed and slept like a log for a good amount of time, then took advantage of the girl’s negligence to close the hatch leading to her balcony to sneak into her room while she was downstairs), she wasn’t complaining about _this_ outcome.

Eventually the conversation went back to discussing superhero-ing. Chat Noir and she had supplied the basic information about who the big bad was and why he was the big bad to Marinette ("I mean, he's terrorizing the city by manipulating innocent citizens. It can't get more obvious than that," said Chat Noir), but that left a lot of unanswered questions. Marinette had all the rights to ask more about the matter as she had been entrusted with the magical jewelry, but it wasn’t exactly Tikki’s place to answer questions about Chat Noir.

“I don’t know, Marinette,” she said. “Even if he does, he never told me anything about it.”

Sure, he was _chat noir_ in a way that he had the Miraculous of the black cat in his possession, but she never openly called him that. _He_ never called himself that, or any other names on that matter. Just like a stray cat, he let people decide what to call him, never confirming nor denying the names given to him.

“You said that his powers are just like mine—I mean, he gets his powers the same way I get superpowers from you, right Tikki? Which means he must have a life outside of superheroing too. You never heard anything during the time he’s not transformed, either?” she asked again.

Shaking her head, Tikki confessed, “He doesn’t. Keeping the city safe is all we do. If there’s no obvious threat, we will just stroll around while patrolling, it’s essentially a full-time job for us.” Then she took a deep breath, bracing herself to deliver a piece of information that would inevitably lead to another question from Marinette—she was a clever girl, Tikki could tell that much already. “I think it’s also partly because he doesn’t detransform.”

“Hmm,” Marinette only hummed in response, deep in thoughts with her eyes squeezed close and lips pursed. Her eyes snapped open just a brief moment later. “What? Then he— _how?_ What about the timer you told me before, doesn’t it work on him?” she questioned. “And the cat! He turns into _a literal cat_ ; that’s not how he detransform? I mean, it’s still kinda unbelievable that he can do that, but that’s… not the way it works, is it?”

“That's a nice observation, Marinette,” she smiled at the girl’s bewildered expression. “And yes, transformation gives you a magical suit and allows you to use my power, but that’s as far as it goes. Your body stays physically the same.”

“So how can he turn into a cat? Is it some different kind of magic then, not the one that you have?”

Tikki shook her head again. “I’m not sure about that myself. I thought that might be the case too, but I don’t feel anything different from him,” she explained.

Marinette seemed to be pondering about her next question. Maybe she felt the discussion about magic was pointless since she probably didn't have any understanding about it, justifiably so. Tikki herself wasn’t familiar with other kinds of magic, if it existed in the first place, because all she ever sensed was always the same kind of magic.

Then another question came. “Wait, you said that he can’t detransform, which means he’s always in his superhero mode with superpowers and all, except when he’s a cat? That’s why you said that it’s a full-time job for him because he just… _can’t_ do otherwise?”

“Actually, he can still use his powers even as a cat, but I get your point,” she nervously added. “You see, Marinette, the earrings now in your possession are in fact created in pair with the ring he’s wearing. He has the power of destruction while I hold the power of creation; we balance each other. It goes without saying that our powers work the exact same way.”

But there were so many _buts_ that followed: His ring didn’t have a timer. He could use his power multiple times. He had the ability to shapeshift and still retain his powers. He could probably try to detransform but who knew what would happen if he did? He didn’t have anything outside of the mask to transform into. He had no name. He had no identity. He was nothing before Tikki found him one day.

And neither of them knew _why_ or _how_.

“But don’t think too much about it,” she added after telling Marinette all those facts. “Besides, I trust him no matter what he is. What matters now is protecting the city because we’re the only ones everyone is counting on.”

“I can tell,” Marinette said with a small smile. “The two of you have been doing a great job for the last months. That couldn’t be easy if you don’t trust each other.”

“Mm-hmm. That’s what we have to do when we can only rely on each other.”

“I trust you too, you know,” she blurted out. “I mean, I admittedly _didn’t_ when I first saw you floating out of a pair of earrings, but now I just do. Maybe because now I understand that the two of you have been putting yourselves in danger for the sake of the city even though you really don't have to. Trusting you is the least I can do in return.”

Her soft hand reached out to Tikki, allowing her to nuzzle her cheek against her fingers. She giggled on the contact, probably from the sensation of flesh touching an entirely magical matter. She said, “And you don’t need to _only_ rely on each other anymore. I’ll do my best to support you two from now on as the new hero. Do you… Can you trust me, Tikki?”

Chat Noir told her it was the girl’s kind, warm eyes that captured his heart, and as much as how exaggerated it sounded like when he said that, Tikki could understand what he meant by that after she saw them herself. Was there anything better to say than giving her the trust to aid them in their battle?

“Of course! I trust you, Marinette.”

**Author's Note:**

> And that's all for now! As you can see, this is an unfinished work and I'm marking it so, but I honestly can't tell when I will post a new chapter. I'm planning of finishing the entire story first but that might take a while because I'm slow, but we'll see.
> 
> I know that some stuffs are left unexplained, but I plan on incorporating the explanations in the story itself later on so don't worry, everything will eventually make sense. Basically the story will be about Marinette and Chat Noir spending time together and knowing each other better... though I suppose you can tell what it's actually about based on these 3 chapters. I hope you've been enjoying this so far!
> 
> ~~And I have a question, when referring to the magical item, is the word miraculous supposed to be capitalized (e.g. 'Ladybug Miraculous') or not?~~
> 
> Thank you for the kudos and comments!


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